Tag: court

Horizon Lines ordered to pay $1,500,000 Horizon Lines, LLC was sentenced Tuesday in front of the Honorable Richard Seeborg after pleading guilty to felony charges concerning violations of international and national oil pollution laws that occurred on a large container ship called the S/S Horizon Enterprise, United States Attorney Melinda Haag announced. As part of a plea agreement, the company was ordered to pay $1,500,000, with $500,000 of the monies going to environmental projects in the San Francisco Bay area.Horizon Lines pled guilty to two counts of making false statements based on their knowing failure to maintain an accurate Oil Record Book in which all transfers and discharges of oil and oily waste are required to be recorded. "Horizon's intentional tampering with its pollution control equipment showed a blatant disregard for the environment," U.S. Attorney Haag said. "This case demonstrates our commitment to enforcing U.S. and international oil pollution laws to protect our natural resources."According to the plea agreement, engineers aboard the S/S Horizon Enterprise intentionally tricked pollution control equipment that would otherwise ensure oily waste does not go overboard. This created the possibility that oily waste could be released into the ocean. To disguise this conduct from the U.S. ...

Moex Also to Perform Gulf Conservation Projects Worth at Least $20 Million MOEX Offshore 2007 LLC has agreed to settle its liability in the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in a settlement with the United States valued at $90 million, announced the Department of Justice, the U.S. Coast Guard and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) today. Approximately $45 million of the $90 million settlement is going directly to the Gulf in the form of penalties or expedited environmental projects.According to the terms of the settlement, MOEX will pay $70 million in civil penalties to resolve alleged violations of the Clean Water Act resulting from the spill and agreed to spend $20 million to facilitate land acquisition projects in several Gulf states that will preserve and protect in perpetuity habitat and resources important to water quality and other environmental features of the Gulf of Mexico region. At the time of the spill, MOEX was a minority investor in the lease for the Macondo well. It no longer owns any share of the lease.The terms of today's settlement do not affect the potential liability of - or recoveries from - other parties involved in the Deepwater Horizon oil spill.Beginning with a well ...

Kenya accepted to try four suspected pirate Kenya accepted Saturday to try four suspected pirates from neighbouring war-torn Somalia captured by a Danish warship in the Indian Ocean, officials said.The four Somalis, who were taken aboard the Danish naval vessel patrolling the pirate-infested waters off the coast of the anarchic Horn of African nation on January 7, arrived by airplane in Kenya's port city Mombasa."We are happy the Kenyan government has agreed to try the suspected pirates on their soil," Danish foreign ministry official Tomas Konigsfeldt said, after the suspects were handed over to Kenyan police.Denmark had previously sought to hand the men to the Seychelles for prosecution under an agreement that allows regional countries to try suspected pirates, but the Indian Ocean island turned down the request."We call upon other countries which signed the agreement to allow suspected pirates tried on their land too," said Konigsfeldt.Kenya has already tried and convicted several Somali pirates. The four are expected to appear in court in Mombasa on Monday.Danish warships are patrolling the seas off Somalia as part of an international anti-piracy force to protect commercial shipping.Two decades of lawlessness have carved up Somalia into mini-fiefdoms ruled by gunmen and militia, encouraging ...

Judge dismissed all of the federal court claims A judge has dismissed all of the federal court claims against a BP PLC contractor sued over the deadly rig explosion and massive oil spill it spawned in the Gulf of Mexico.None of the plaintiffs' attorneys or other companies sued over the 2010 disaster formally objected before U.S. District Judge Carl Barbier on Friday dismissed the claims against Swiss-based Weatherford U.S. LP and Weatherford International Inc.Barbier ruled there is no evidence that a Weatherford-made float collar used in BP's blown-out well was defective or contributed to the cause of the blowout and spill.A trial involving claims against BP, rig owner Transocean and other companies is scheduled to start Feb. 27.Last year, Weatherford agreed to pay BP $75 million to settle all potential claims between the companies.Source: Huffington Post

Eighty-four suspected Somali pirates being held in Kenyan prison Eighty-four suspected Somali pirates being held in a Kenyan prison Tuesday expressed concern with the Kenyan judiciary system and appealed to the international community for deportation.The 84 who are on pre-trial detention in the coastal city of Mombasa said they have languished in the facility for over three years with no sign of justice coming their way.Speaking during an open day at the prison, the accused pirates said the Kenyan government had failed to grant them justice but put them through physical and mental abuse."We want justice to prevail as the Kenya government claims to obey human rights and justice for all," said an accused pirate only identified as Mohamed.Margaret Chuma, the head of the prison, said 16 of the accused pirates had been convicted and were under a rehabilitation program. She urged others to be patient as their cases were being sorted out.The pirates said there was no justice in Kenya and the judiciary systems is not up to task in handling their cases. They want their cases to be taken back to Somalia."The international community and Kenya should deport us and let us get charged in our own country ...

Plaintiffs' attorneys will hold a Press Conference February 14 upon filing of Amended Complaint Attorneys representing many of the passengers who were aboard the doomed Costa Concordia Cruise Ship that capsized off the Italian coast in January are filing an Amended Complaint on behalf of thirty-nine individual plaintiffs in State Court before the Florida Circuit Court (11th Judicial Circuit) in Miami-Dade County. Although previous reports indicated a class action was filed, this is incorrect; no class certification is sought as the respective losses and injuries suffered by each plaintiff is unique. The initial complaint in the matter styled Scimone v. Carnival Cruise Lines, et al., under docket number 12-3496 CA 4 was filed for individually named plaintiffs on January 27, 2012.The newly filed Amended Complaint has been transferred to the Court's Complex Litigation Division with an updated docket designation of CA 40. Plaintiffs are represented by the law firms Napoli Bern Ripka Shkolnik & Associates, LLP (with offices in New York and Florida), New York-based Proner & Proner and Florida law firm Colson Hicks Eidson along with the Italian firm CODACONS.The factual recitation in the complaints sets forth the terrifying and catastrophic failings of the Carnival Cruise Lines' crew and ...

Bail of $3.3 million A Chinese maritime court on Saturday ordered the detention of a South Korean cargo ship over a chemical leak that polluted the Yangtze River, contaminating drinking water in parts of Jiangsu province, the official Xinhua news agency reported.The country's second water pollution scare in a month sparked a run on bottled water.The court ordered the cargo ship, Gloria, to be detained at the city of Nantong and set a bail of 20.6 million yuan ($3.3 million), Bu Xiaofang, a spokesman of the Zhenjiang municipal government, was quoted as saying late on Saturday.Officials in Zhenjiang in Jiangsu province said phenol, an acid compound used to make nylon and detergents, was found in its water source last week. The pollution caused tap water in some parts of the city to emit a pungent smell, sending panicked residents to stockpile bottled water from supermarkets.A cancer-causing cadmium discharge from a mining company polluted a long stretch of two rivers in southern China last month, prompting officials to warn some 3.7 million people of Liuzhou in the Guangxi region to avoid drinking water from the river, state media reported.Pollution as well as food safety have come under the spotlight in China, ...

Filippino crewman ostands to be handsomely compensated by a US court A Filippino crewman on board a Malta-flagged freighter, stands to be handsomely compensated by a US court for serving as a whistleblower, revealing that the ship had illegally dumped oily waste and garbage into the sea as it approached Baltimore.Seaman Salvatore Lopez had slipped a note to US Coast Guard inspectors as they boarded the MV Aquarosa, reading: "I have something to tell you, but in secret."The secret - that the ship had illegally dumped oily waste and garbage into the ocean - resulted in the owners and operators of the MV Aquarosa fined US$1.85 million in a federal court last week and also ordered to pay US$550,000 to a foundation to help restore the Chesapeake Bay in Baltimore.The Filippino whistleblower - a seaman who supports a wife and four children on US$27,000 a year - stands to earn a six-figure reward for his efforts, including gathering copies of the ship's logs and snapping hundreds of pictures of illegal onboard activities with his cell phone.A decision on the size of his reward is pending; federal law says the amount can be as much as half the fine."Without Lopez coming ...

To ignore the limits and disregard the load line marks only places the vessel and lives of the crew At a hearing yesterday at Southampton Magistrates Court the German owners of the Antigua and Barbuda registered cargo vessel Katja pleaded guilty to the overloading of their vessel which had arrived in Liverpool laden with rock salt from the St. Lawrence Seaway, Canada in November 2010.The vessel was loaded to its marks with rock salt and sailed from Goderich to arrive at the Manchester Ship Canal on the 23rd November 2010. Rock salt was in high demand to treat UK highways at this time.As the vessel entered the River Mersey, the pilot on another passing vessel noticed that the Plimsoll Line and load lines were not visible and the vessel appeared very low in the water. When the vessel arrived in the Queen Elizabeth II Dock it was inspected by MCA Port State Control Officers who found that the load line that marks the safety limit of the vessel was submerged by 39.5 cm.Katja Schiffahrtsges Gmbh of Haren, Ems, Germany, owner of the ship Katja, was fined 28015 plus costs of 5000 awarded to the MCA. In summing up the Magistrates ...

BP request premature -judge A federal judge rejected BP Plc's effort to keep evidence about settlements out of the upcoming trial to decide who is responsible for the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill.Tuesday's ruling by U.S. District Judge Carl Barbier in New Orleans, scheduled to preside in a non-jury trial beginning Feb. 27, is a victory for Halliburton Co, which had provided cementing services for the Macondo oil well.The Houston-based company had argued that evidence of settlements or negotiations could show the settling companies' potential bias in BP's favor, which Halliburton could then use in its defense.BP countered that excluding such information was consistent with federal rules on evidence, and that such details are irrelevant to establishing liability.Barbier concluded that the London-based oil company's request was premature, even though there were "plausible scenarios" in which settlement evidence could reflect bias."The proper course is to wait until any settlement evidence is actually sought to be introduced to determine admissibility," he wrote.BP has reached settlements with two partners in the Macondo well: $4 billion with Anadarko Petroleum Corp, and $1.065 billion with Mitsui & Co's MOEX unit.It also reached settlements of $250 million with Cameron International Corp, which made a blowout ...